{"id":399486,"date":"2024-06-03T02:43:04","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T02:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=399486"},"modified":"2024-06-03T06:05:28","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T06:05:28","slug":"desperate-tigers-make-4m-play-for-snubbed-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=399486","title":{"rendered":"Desperate Tigers make $4m play for snubbed star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>T\ufeffhe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/wests-tigers\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Wests Tigers\">Wests Tigers<\/a> have made a $4 million play to keep a rising star at the club despite attempting to sell off several of his teammates.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/wests-tigers-offer-4-million-deal-to-young-gun-20240603-p5jirs.html?ref=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_source=rss_sport\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"The Sydney Morning Herald reports\">The Sydney Morning Herald reports<\/a> the Concord club has tabled a five-year contract extension to young forward Stefano Utoikamanu.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeffThe deal is said to be worth $4m, or $800,000 per season over its entirety.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/rob-burrow-dead-at-41-news-english-super-league-legend-mnd-disease-20240603-p5jiog.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Tributes for rugby league legend dead at 41<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/state-of-origin-2024-news-james-tedesco-nsw-blues-recall-dylan-edwards-injury-20240602-p5jip9.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Skipper&#x27;s NSW recall no excuse for &#x27;poor quality&#x27;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/the-mole-news-2024-round-13-reed-mahoney-bulldogs-knights-niggle-20240602-p5jiox.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Surprise &#x27;vital cog&#x27; powering unlikely Bulldogs charge<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The move from the Tigers is designed to keep rival <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"NRL\">NRL<\/a> clubs at bay and prevent the 24-year-old from hitting the open market.<\/p>\n<p>The Herald reports Utoikamanu will become a free agent unless he plays two <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/state-of%20origin\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"State of Origin\">State of Origin<\/a> games this year, or the Tigers make the top eight.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"e1283c9b-33f4-4801-8fbf-4ca29f0be78e\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/e1283c9b-33f4-4801-8fbf-4ca29f0be78e\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"3018\" data-height=\"1697\" \/><\/p>\n<p>He was not selected in Michael Maguire&#x27;s Blues squad last week and so appears long odds to play two Origin games.<\/p>\n<p>And the struggling Tigers sit 16th on the ladder with only two wins under new coach Benji Marshall.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeffUtoikamanu would be the most in-demand forward &#8211; if not overall player &#8211; on the NRL market if he was to gauge his options.<\/p>\n<p>The Herald also reports \ufeffUtoikamanu&#x27;s manager will seek permission to speak to rival clubs unless his client is picked for the Blues in Origin II.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Watch the 2024 State of Origin series exclusively live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/9now.app.link\/1QDVFYZrWab\"><em><strong>9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><strong>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>It comes at the same time new Tigers CEO Shane Richardson is attempting a fire sale of other players at the club.<\/p>\n<p>Isaiah Papali&#x27;i has already signed with Penrith for next year, while Richardson has reportedly been in England trying to sell the likes of Jayden Sullivan and Brent Naden.<\/p>\n<p>Young hooker Jake Simpkin was released to join Manly on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>T\ufeffhe Wests Tigers have made a $4 million play to keep a rising star at the club despite attempting to sell off several of his <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=399486\" title=\"Desperate Tigers make $4m play for snubbed star\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":391483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399486"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=399486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":399488,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399486\/revisions\/399488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/391483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=399486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=399486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=399486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}